The Ultimate Nerd Project

[Unimatic1140]

You are correct Jason, what I should have said was:

Fill in outer tub with cool water and pump water back into inner tub with re-circulation pump, start agitation. Immediately add two minutes of overflow rinse turning by turning off re-circulation pump and turning on drain pump, and diverting incoming cold water directly into inner wash tub. Stop pump and dispense softener and have a minute of agitation with softener and no overflow.

 

[gizmo]

While we are in Fantasyland...

Another feature of my future home made washer (a low voltage DC front loader) will be a "purge tank". For the initial fill of hot water, the machine will take in hot water and send it straight to an internal tank mounted in the top of the machine above the drum. The temperature of incoming water will be monitored and when water gets close to the set temp, the water stream will divert into the wash drum via the dispenser. So the drum will not be half full of cold water before any hot water arrives.
After the first drain and spin, the first rinse will commence using whatever water was saved to the purge tank. (solenoid valve opens to dump water from purge tank into drum.) So no water is wasted, it is just held over for the rinse.
The tank would have to have an overflow that empties into the dispenser, so that if the incoming hot water temp never gets hot enough, and thus the fill never flicks over to the drum, the machine will continue with water from the purge tank. That way the wash will continue, with the hottest water available even if not as hot as the selected temperature.

Remember how determined I am not to have a heater...

Chris.

 

[foraloysius]

Robert,

Isn't it just easier to just buy a Miele? LOL

Ducking and running!

Louis

 

[gizmo]

Now here's an idea, Louis...

Take a Miele
Lie it on its back
Fit a 3 ring agitator and mechanism to make it jump up and down
You are well on the way to turn a mere Miele into a proper washing machine...
Duck and run 2

Chris

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hi Louis, getting a Miele would good idea execpt that I prefer my clothes to be rinsed properly.

-Not ducking

 

[toggleswitch]

OMG I better duck for fear of shrapnel.

 

[mayken4now]

Waiting until the Super Unimatic is ready for a madien wash! Enjoy your BIONIC timer system!

Steve

 

[foraloysius]

My Miele is shaking for laughter because of all this ignorance. LOL I have well rinsed towels with four high water level rinses and spins between all the rinses. You can actually choose between three water levels for the rinses. Two water levels are available for the prewash and the main wash. I bet my Miele can use more water than a Unimatic if necessary! LOL

 

[westytoploader]

Robert, very interesting concepts! Are you going to have it computer-controlled, with programmable cycles? And what would be the appropriate Unimatic cabinet to use?

Wait...wouldn't a Super Unimatic be a BOL machine that has much less styling, 1 wash/rinse temperature (and only 1 water valve connection), 1 fill level, and a fixed wash time for the cycle? ;-)

*Ducks and runs*

 

[Unimatic1140]

I bet my Miele can use more water than a Unimatic if necessary!

I have no doubt about that Mister.

Are you going to have it computer-controlled, with programmable cycles? And what would be the appropriate Unimatic cabinet to use?

Absolutely Austin, that's the nice thing about programming a computer, it can do almost anything you want, maybe whenever the washer is pulsating I can show an icon like this on the monitor.

I'm probably going to use that spare WO-65 cabinet that I have a make my own top for the machine.

 

[westytoploader]

Very cool!! And for the ultimate in retro, use an MS-DOS-based computer with QBASIC or GWBASIC!! Vintage PC running a vintage washer! I'm assuming that since you're using Visual BASIC, the computer you picked up was a Windows-based PC. And you could also create some "command" programs that the machine would accept as you entered them in. I saw this in Waco (GT Field Trip to Texas Tech) in 8th grade, where they had vintage IBM PS/2s connected to robotic arms...I'm sure it was nothing more than a BASIC program with a programmed user-friendly interface. For example, you typed in "X" and the arm moved left, "Z", it moved right, and so on. Now, you could create a user interface, type in "S", and then the machine would pulsate for 10 seconds, energize the spin solenoid and spin for another 30 seconds, coast for a short time and then engage the brake. Would be a great demonstration!

Will the timer be a standard Frigidaire "snappy" timer for that particular machine or are you going to have an on-board display connected to the control board?

 

[shanonabc]

next step is connecting it to the net LOL

 

[gizmo]

yes, with a webcam inside the lid

 

[Unimatic1140]

Will the timer be a standard Frigidaire "snappy" timer for that particular machine or are you going to have an on-board display connected to the control board?

No Austin, the whole point of the project is to run the machine from the computer sitting on a shelf above the washer with the computer monitor displaying graphics and words to select and describe the cycle that is running. If I want to hear an increment click, I can simply program in a digitized version of a 1950’s washer timer increment click…

<EMBED SRC=http://www.automaticwasher.org/TEMP/ic2.wav AUTOSTART=FALSE LOOP=FALSE></EMBED>

 

[compactc9]

It would be very strangly fun to controll someone else's washing machine. But I don't think I would want people controlling mine. I think this sounds like a funproject, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[lightedcontrols]

....just wondering....

....with all of that action in the wash tub, how are you going to control all of the suds?.......Mark (I NEVER did find a detergent that didn't oversuds in the TL Maytag Neptune)

 

[Unimatic1140]

Mark, that's the beauty of using a Unimatic for this, in the seven years I have used Unimatics I have not once ever been able to oversuds the machine to the point that the wash tub slows down and suds locks during spin and I've had some major suds cakes before that would choke any other washer.

Although with that said, I'm going to have to experiment with the rinse cycle. I'm not sure if it would be wise to use the recirculation system during the rinse as it might end up bringing the wash suds back into the wash tub which would be counter productive. But it seems to work find in solid basket GE Filter-Flo machines, so I'm not sure.

 

[foraloysius]

All kidding aside

I think you are working on a major project, it will keep you quite busy. Actually I'm not su much wondering about all the electronics as well about how to build in a heating element and a recirculation system. I assume you have to drill holes for that in the porcelain (?) drum?

 

[Designgeek]

Unimatic1140 gets the Way-Cool Award of the month, and Gizmo gets another for the purge-tank system for water temp control.

BTW, another source of purge water is the shower before it gets hot. At minimum, save it in a bucket for toilet-flushes.

For absolute max efficiency, seems to me the best arrangement is an inclined-axis wash drum at a 15-degree angle (does not need a water-tight door seal at that point, just a deflector-shaped porthole to direct the splash back into the drum), and a vertical-axis spinner such as a SpinX or its Pakistani equivalent. For the inclined-axis wash drum, use a discarded Maytag Neptune. Refit with a programmable controller as per Unimatic1140's design or something similar. Add the purge water system as per Gizmo.

The washer mechanism would be used for all phases except final spin. Intermediate spins wouldn't have to be high-speed, and could be equipped for multiple-rinse-and-spin operation. Instead of final highspeed spin, have another low-speed spin to remove enough water to make the load non-drippy, and then transfer the load manually to the Spin-X.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Louis for the heater I'm going to use a Dacor dishwasher in line heater so no drilling for the heater will be necessary. But the spare cabinet I have for this project is pretty beat up so I will have no problem drilling into the porcelain cabinet to mount lots of fun new hardware.

Here is what the in-line heater looks like, I think it will work perfectly for this application...